Let It Drain

In the little church where I was raised and watered down,
Where I wondered at the mystery behind the velvet curtain,
Where I sang about the deep, deep sea ’till I thought that I would drown,
Where drowning in red velvet was the only thing for certain:
I walked in one day, right in from out of the rain
And felt it all draining down inside that big, empty upper room.
I walked in one day, right in from out of the rain.
And I let it drain.

You can’t just want it,
It ain’t about desire.
You got to need it in your heart
Before you sing in that great Cosmic Choir.

In the little town where I was wet behind the ears —
Just an island ’tween the asphalt river highways —
I would wander with more hunger with each passing year,
Until I ate that town and more that got in my way.
And I sat down in that cigar smoke and cinder-block bar,
After ten long years of trying to digest and excrete
Every name, every face, on every street full of used cars.
I never got that far.

You can’t outrun it,
It’s in your heart forever.
You got to take it, Lord,
And keep it in you heart forever.

In the little love I knew when I was seventeen,
There were whirling winds, there was howling hail, there was shelter from the storm.
There was the innocence to fall, there was the gall to cut you clean.
And we never fell together, and the cut was clean and warm.
And I walked in one day, right in from out of the rain
And felt it all draining down inside that big, empty upper room.
I walked in one day, right in from out of the rain.
And I let it drain.

You can’t just want it,
It ain’t about desire.
You got to need it in your heart
Before you walk in the coals of that fire.

Appears On:

Medicine – 1990

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Listen to “Let It Drain” at the Marques Bovre Music Hub.

“Let It Drain” from Medicine

Note: there are two different songs that go by the same title “Let It Drain.” The other song appears on Nashville Dandelion.